The present invention relates to methods of diagnosing peripheral vascular disease (PVD) using measured changes in oxygen saturation in tissue. More specifically, the invention relates to diagnosing PVD from an analysis of oxygen saturation during recovery from ischemia (reduced or stoppage of blood flow).
Peripheral vascular disease is a condition that is exemplified by a narrowing of blood vessels to internal organs and muscles. Patients with PVD are four times more likely to have a myocardial infarction and three times more likely to have a stroke. The five year mortality rate for people with PVD is 30%. PVD affects 20% of the elderly and 40% of diabetics.
Unfortunately, it has been estimated that 8–12 million people in the United States are affected with this disease and the numbers are growing at a rate of 5% a year. Although these numbers show that PVD is a fairly common disease, PVD is often not diagnosed or is misdiagnosed. It has been estimated that 71% of physicians overlook a PVD condition in their patients.
It would be beneficial to have innovative techniques for diagnosing PVD. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have techniques of diagnosing PVD with relatively high accuracy rates.